1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to parking meters and, more particularly to parking meters capable of being operated without monetary coins
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
Parking meters are generally operated by the insertion of a monetary coin which buys the user the right to park a vehicle in an assigned place for a specified time period. Parking meters of this kind are, however, inconvenient to use and operate. The user must carry the correct type and number of coins and the operator must provide for frequent emptying of the meters. Moreover, the coin operated meters tend to be unreliable because coins may become jammed in the feed path and because the meters are sometimes damaged in attempts to steal the coins contained in them or to obtain free parking time. The collection and counting of small denomination coins also gives rise to accounting problems.
It has been suggested that credit cards might be used to operate parking meters instead of monetary coins but this has proven to be impractical because very sophisticated (and consequently expensive) equipment is required to read and validate different types of credit cards and to reject valid but stolen cards. Moreover, expensive accounting systems are required to handle the receivables from credit card companies, and credit card companies also charge a fee for each transaction.
Consequently there is a need for parking meters that can be operated without the use of monetary coins but which are nevertheless simple to use and operate and difficult for dishonest users to defeat.